I wrote a letter earlier and a colleague checked it but didn’t like the way I used “Further” at the start of a sentence. The letter would go:
“Further, it is not accurate to say…” and “Further, the school in question…”
Is this plain wrong or just a matter of taste? He insisted it should be “furthermore”.
Dictionary.com seems to say that it is equivalent to furthermore and would be all right as you use it, althought perhaps not as commonly used.
Stylistically, the sentence would feel different to me:
“Further, …”: I would use “In addition, …” instead. It seems more commonly used for simply adding something of the same intensity.
“Furthermore…” seems to me like an intensifier; you’ve stated one thing and the “furthermore” is going to pile more information on that same idea.
Yeah, I’d use “furthermore” rather than “further.”
Certainly people use such a construction. It can be easily understood. I can see no reason to rule it out-of-bounds.
But I follow the rule that if I can take out a word, I try to.
My old writing booklet from Leavenworth pointed out that little but argument follows the word when used to begin a sentence. It advised against such usage.
To harp on one of my pet peeves, this is not a grammar question but a style question.
And none of my style guides even address it, probably because they couldn’t imagine anyone in their audience doing such a thing.
Furthermore is a possible substitute, as would be “in addition” or “moreover” or a similar phrase.
Further is not good formal English, but it is not grammatically incorrect.
I can’t help but feel a tad chastened by this post.
According to the OED, the use of “further” to mean “in addition” dates from 1000 A.D.:
Note that the second example is exactly what you’re talking about.
Since it’s perfectly OK to begin a sentence with “In addition,” or “Additionally,” then it’s perfectly OK to begin it with its synonym, “further.”
That’s why I said “their audience.” The ones I have are the classic guides that presumed an educated formal readership who needed just a bit of guidance to the oddities and complexities of English. Modern-day informality would have them rolling in their graves. Reading message boards or email on the Internet would resurrect them, kill them all over again, and kick them in the balls.
I think you were supposed to. 
That’s why I stopped being a prescriptivist a long time ago. Prescriptivists can’t keep up with the accelerating changes in the language, and lock in dead wisdom as writ. That’s no different from any other type of religious belief.
Once upon a time, all men wore hats. There was a huge body of rules of etiquette on hats that could not even imagine a time when virtually no men would wear hats, or that baseball caps would become normal garb.
It isn’t the baseball cap wearers that I was talking about, but the old etiquette writers.